Fifth American Edition 



A Dream of 

Realms Beyond Us 



A oook that in all parts of the world is giving to each man more courage to 
become his brother's helper than have any or ail books of the past time 



ADAIR WELCKER 






m^ 



The following criticism and comment were in the form of a printed page, 
pasted into copies of the third edition of this book, on November 20, 1902, and 
copies were, on November 21st and thereafter, mailed to different countries: 

CRITICISM 

The London (England) Daily Chronicle, November 4, 1902, said: "It was 
the discrepancy between price and apparent value that first fixed onr attention 
on this paper covered pamphlet of six and thirty pages. Then, the announce- 
ment on the cover stirred curiosity, 'A book that in all parts of the world is 
giving to each man more courage to become his brother's helper than have any 
or all books of the past time.' Then for a moment, seeing that this unique 
work first appeared in 1885 and is now in its third edition, we are ashamed of 
ourselves. Where had been our eyes these seventeen years.? But ten minutes' 
reading of this drama in four acts and twenty-eight pages showed us that we 
were face to face with a specimen of what we may call freak literature. 
England has its literary freaks, who write of the Lost Ten Tiibes and the 
flatness of the earth, and so on; but in this department, America is supreme. 
It has produced Ignatius Donnelly, it has produced the Christian Science 
Bible, one of the silliest books ever written. These, however, have at least the 
excuse of a definite object. We cannot tell what Mr. Welcker is driving at, 
for when his blank verse scans it^conveys no meaning, and when it doesn't it 
is excruciating. * * He is mercifully conscious of other people's human 
limitations, and devotes a supplement to explaining himseJf to the ' British 
reviewers.' But, even here, there is no ' glowing light.' You will understand 
this if you will kindly read the following passage from a prefatory note."— 

[The critic here sets out the first seventeen lines of the Second Prefatory 
Note of the book, and then continues.] * * " g^t one is almost inclined 
to regret the freedom of the press and long for some matriculation examina- 
tion which should exclude from literature all who cannot think, consecutively 
for, say— five seconds. The examiners would certainly plough a whole batch 
of freak book-makers, and among them Mr. Welcker." 

For the purpose apparently of staying it, upon a foundation of sand building 
up before it a small mound of opinion to stop the incoming tide of the work's 
progress, the Chicago Daily News, without — by first setting forth some proof 
that it begins to comprehend the work— showing its right to form a conclu- 
sion in regard te it, yet takes occasion to indorse the London Daily Chronicle, 
in the conclusion that it comes to. 

conriENT 

" The book, indeed, has in it that which would not be grasped by a body of 
wise men to whom the Daily Chronicle would almost give the power to suppress. 
They, like the 'London Chronicle, would (if it would), even before they had 
come to find out the work's meaning, be ready to suppress it. For, being 
selected because of the expert knowledge of letters possessed by them, they 
would have, along with this knowledge, the sort of wisdom and prudence, and 
caution — lest they should lose something— to which a work of this character, 
because of the fact that it is seen to be different from their own, is ever an 
offense. 

The immovable power and strength, which British reviewers, without being 
able themselves to explain why, have recognized, to be in the work, rests not 
in the figures or letters, among which writers on the Chronicle have so 
diligently sought, but the might of it is spirit. And the work is one that is never 
to be suppressed. For in it is something that, though tribunals, too were estab- 
lished to put into operation despotism in connection with literature, is 
stronger than imperial conduct; stronger than are they,— and it is the end of 
the methods by which countries large have come, at times, to take their land, 
and their right to self rule, away from peoples little." \ 



A REVIEW AND A QUESTION. 

The brave— (for the darin? "alone are those who grow into comprehension of 
things eternal) — critic selected to review this work in the London Magazine 
Anubis, of December, 1902, in the course of the review, after quoting pas- 
sages in it, said: " Would that these lines might be blazoned in fire on every 
wall." 

[Not only, now, is the handwriting of the work on walls throughout the 
world here, but the power and splendor of it, which no man has been or can be 
able to gainsay or overcome, is, with an intense joy, recognized to be estab- 
lished by those who dwell upon the outer edges of many another.] 

The reviewer closes the review with these words: '' We would fain ask the 
author's reasoa for placing an almost prohibitive price on it " [the work] ? 



THE ANSWER TO THE QUERY. 

The reviewer's query arose from the fact that the announcement in the front 
of the book criticised is, that only signed copies will be sold by the author, 
and at $10 per copy; but that typewritt n or MS. copies may be made by any 
persons, who may sell them for what they will. Now, what constitutes the 
answer to the!queetion of the reviewer is this: There may be many who, for a 
price that would not seem prohibitive— who for five dollars, perhaps, or even 
less — would make MS. or typewritten copies. Thus, an increasing number of 
people will have an opportunity created by which they will be enabled to 
make a liviag until a better opportunity is before them. Even if, upon its 
face, an e.tort to bring about such a result appears to be illogical, or absurd, 
or foolish, still if, at the time of making it, it does not appear to bo within 
our power to make any of another kind, to obtain for " houseless heads " a 
shelter, let us be then at least the kind of fools that will make the effort. We 
thereby may achieve the splendid success of not being epo'^en well of by all 
men for having made ir. 

I saw after midnight — at a time when the German state had provided for its 
soldiers, their officers, the Emperor and his household, warm clothes, sufficient 
food, and a roof , while the snow was falling, huddled together in doorways, 
upon the highways of the German capital, because the jails were already filled — 
so it was said— to the limit, mothers and their little ones, and old men, whose 
" houseless heads, whose unfed sides, whose looped and windowed raggedness " 
were not for them a defense against the inclemency of the season. And having 
noted the officers and soldiers, and Emperor and Emperor's household , who 
were first clothed and fed, before these women and babes and old men — having 
noted these soldiers and officers and Emperor and Emperor's household, for 
whom the German state provided, seeing that the state did not also provide 
for these less strong ones also labor and occupation, by means of which t« 
obtain them— I remembered words that then applied to this German state and 
to any which does not, with exact and equal justice to all citizens alike, fur- 
nish opportunity to obtain, by their hands, s(» much as to these others had 
already been given— clothing sufficient for warmth, nourishment sufficient for 
health, and a roof: Inasmuch as you did it NOT to one of the least of these 
you did it NOT to me. 

At some future date the author of this work may— if the German govern- 
ment shall, in the meantime, first have seen to it that by day or night no one 
will any more have to walk the streets of its capital lacking clothes, or bread, 

or roof —come again to visit that city. 

ADAIR WELCKER. 



.^- 



A Dream of Realms Beyond Us 



BY 

ADAIR WELCKER 

331 Pine Street, San Francisco, Cal. 



Fifth Separate American Edition 

Matter not in previous editions is contained in this. In a later edition there 

may be an undertaking made to make clear some of the 

meanings of acts of Nature not herein set forth. 



Copyright 1885 by Adair Welcker. 
Copyright 1900 by Adair Welcker. 



This is a book, the earlier issues of which have been placed in the hands 
of many readers in Canada, the United States. Australia, Asia, Africa and Great 
Britain, where, with an attraction stronger than iron, it has become one with 
what is in the depths of Earth's profoundest and greatest, differing from 
other books in this: that here a new work has been attempted; that of setting 
forth not alone things, but the meaning of things; that of giving, not direc- 
tions to do things, but the reason why things should be done, or be not done. 
I'or, for the world to do this, will be for it to step out of the age in which 
violence has held sway, into another, in which there will be none, in anticipa- 
tion whereof the time is to be when monuments now made of stone or metal 
for war's victories are to be erected to be, and to be gazed upon only as monu- 
ments to indicate a people's shame, or remorse. 

The price of this book is 40 shillings, or $10, if bought from the author; 
but all people are at liberty to make MS. or typewritten copies and sell them 
for what they will. Copies sold by the author will be signed by him. It is, 
however, his desire that all persons who would be in any difficulty to pay to 
him the price that he speaks of for a copy, will, instead, employ t)eople to 
make for them, or themselves make for themselves, typewritten or MS. copies. 



331 Pine Street. 
SAN FRANCISCO: 

1903. 



Two Copies Received 

WAY 21 1903 \ 

Copyiight tntry | ^^ 

CLASS C^mr..H.' v^iJ^V ^ •w 

In January, 1903, the San Francisco Examiner had an editorial asking the 
Legislature for an appropriation of money for the University of California. 
Now, 

A GIFT GREATER THAN THE MONEY ASKED FOR IN 
THE NEWSPAPER WOULD BE KNOWLEDGE : 

That, until an institution that has done injustice, has undone it, and, in b© 
far as it can, sets matters right, no money obtained, either from poor or rich, 
can give to it aid. 

AND, nORE VALUABLE THAN THE HONEY ASKED 
FOR, WOULD BE THIS KNOWLEDGE: 

That an institution, making two men Professors Emeritus in it, one of them 
one who had never been wronged by it, but the other, one so appointed years 
after having been removed without any charge preferred or cause assigned 
against him, from the head of one of its departments, that, after making both 
of these men professors Emeritus, one attending all the time and the other 
part of the time thereafter its faculty meetings, and ready to serve when asked 
pays, to the one who attended part of the time, compensation for his time, 
and to the other, who regularly attended, dragging himself there, although the 
hand of death was already laid upon him, nothing whatever for the long 
period of his attendance, cannot, while it continues to hold this model of 
conduct of its governors aloft for the eyes of its pupils to look upon, escape 
from the certain fate of which the teachers imported by it from other States, 
either at its head or in its departments, ought to be able to inform them. 

AND nORE THAN ilONEY IS THE GIFT OF THIS KNOWL- 
EDGE WORTH. 

That, until justice has first been done by it, no other high 
knowledge will come out of any man teaching in it— knowl= 
edge that, beneath the assaults that, in the future, will be 
brought against it, will not fall, but can, immovable, stand. 

ADAIR WELCKER. 

The San Francisco Examiner having, in its editorial on January 6, 1903 , 
asked for the State Uaiversity money from the Legislature of California, is 
selected as the journal in connection with which to make the foregoing com- 
ment, because since the days of Iscariot, no set of men have done a fouler 
wrong than did it, or such as were back of it. when they got from a judge such" 
a charge, and a jury such a verdict, as was in their favor, in a proceeding which 
the author of this, in order that what is here said, might be stated, had taken 
against it. 

Afterwards, Judas did this that causes men to be forgiven: he openly con- 
fessed his guilt, and put as far as he could from him all the advantages that 
had come from his act, and any man who has oppressed, or ruler whose hire- 
lings are oppressing and making war upon the seemingly weak, may now, if 
he will do as miich, in the way of restoration, as did he. and as courageously 
acknowledge his guilt, be also forgiven. He, however, had manhood that led 
him to do even more than this, for his remorse he also established. 

And the abhorrent and horrid infamy of the Examiner spreads to every 
journal in the combination of papers held in trust, not for his own uses, owned 
by the editor and publisher of it. 

The author has been asked in what manner what is in this book has been 
written, and his answer is, that it has been by direction of that intelligence 
which builds the universe, by direction of a power that is above rulers and all 
judges who have held the goodwill of the apparently strong at the cost of the 
seeming destruction of the innocent; and that what the writer of this has 
heard from that intelligence he has written. And others, who know that 
intelligence, will also know whether his statements are true. 



PREFATORY NOTE: 

The undertaking in this work has been to follow a 
method which has not before been followed; to take a step which 
comes after those which in religion and philosophy have already 
been taken; to pijt into the work that which no method of philos- 
ophy has yet had in it; that which alone, after the work done in 
the past, can, with it, because of the manner in which it will create 
a new vision within earth, cause peace upon earth to come. It 
has been intended to put into it and, through it, into earth, that 
act of the endless-world art that will so touch the souls of men 
that into them will be caused gradually to come, from this time 
on, perception and a knowledge of the meaning and purpose of 
things. For, over those matters out of which do not come to the 
souls of men a spirit, and an understanding of them, men must 
perforce still war; but out of understanding, and from under- 
standing, will alone come that which will turn their battleships 
into rust and their armies into a nightmare no longer to be 
dreamed by earth. 

Then, in place of these childish follies, will highest manhood, 
in the form of conscience, be caused to come down, and be, and 
dwell upon earth. Then there will not be done by armies of peo- 
ple that thieve and partition, or be done to women and babes in 
camps of concentration, work for which a Herod of old, of Judea, 
or a Jack the Ripper, should blush. Then will there be done 
those high and serious things that will be worthy of men grown 
up, when, through the discovery — which sense and ability will 
make for them— that peace is best, there will at last come and be 
between and among men goodwill. 



SECOND PREFATORY NOTE: 

This work— a dream and more than a dream— dealing 
with matters upon which the minds of men throughout the world 
are, at the present time, profoundly fixed, is here presented to the 
reader in an incomplete form. At some future date, should the 
governors and rulers of institutions of learning who have, in all 
lands, been made trustees by their people, and given large endow- 
ments for their institutions, with the belief that, with them, they 
could be aided to be watchmen, upon their behalf, in her night- 
time of art— thought, by such methods, to be by them, furnished 
with all manner of means to keep an outlook for the emergence 
into the world, not only of art, but of each letter of the law which 
will otherwise be found, and found there only, where things 
change not — in its unseen place— see here, in behalf of the people 
who have mtrusted them to be for them their watchmen, signs of 
something that might be added to what is here, which would be 
of the law a part, and of art that part that is art transcendent, 
then will that which is not now here be added. 

On the other hand, if they shall not so see, they will have had 
an opportunity to do — for those for whom they hold a trust than 
which none higher is ever placed in the hands of men — that 
which, in connection with it, they shall have deemed to have been 
their duty for those who have trusted them, both as their agents 
and regents. 

Let it not be supposed however, that there could be here 
expressed towards any a thought or word of coercion; for into the 
last and highest region of art, which is the place where all action 
is in perfect freedom, coercion and oppression cannot come: in that 
kingdom of art not an act, and not even an imperialistic or 
despotic thought can be: for with its kingdom they have no 
proportion, and into it cannot enter. 



A DREAM OF REALMS BEYOND US- 



Bt ADAIR WELCKER. 



ACT I. 



^cgne— A level space in the evening clouds of heaven, above the 
Golden Gate, surrounded by, and having above them— mass 
back of mass — the purple and gold clouds of heaven; and 
within them, on the cloud plain, and composed of their sub- 
stances, tents. A throne, wrought of the hues of the rainbow, 
upon which rests a spirit named Elmo. Below, the uplifted 
heads of the Gate that opens upon the ocean Pacific, 

Etheria — Beloved commanding spirit, I have obeyed, 
In all respects, your dear commands. 
Seizing my silvery staff, and placing therein 
Sweet thoughts to be attracted westward 
Around the world, back to those other thoughts 
Held by you here, I sped upon my mission. 

Elidah — While that abomination we have seen 
On Earth, that's desolation, also have we viewed 
Fire once more brought; the star once more ablaze; 
Forth from the act that, through the ages ages 
Each man, when he will know the doctrine, may do; 
By which each man, who loves, more than the ropes 
Of wealth, or goods, or place, or men's esteem. 
Wisdom and understanding and more life, 
May break those bonds that hold him to the rock 
Till he be son of man. So, now come we here 
To note what, by the law, must follow after. 



8 

Etheria — The day I left behind: outran the sun; 
Entered the towering palace of the dark 
That, through all time, stands opposite the sun. 
I then swept through its curious moonlit halls. 
And there I met these hideous impish sprites 
That dwell within the pointed tower of night 
That circles earth as shadow of the sun. 
I found them mingling ever, elements — 
Making compounds to thwart the course of nature. 
From them I learned but little of these beings 
That dwell in contact with the earth below us. 
But when I overtook the blue of morning, 
Found I some beings from a distant sphere, 
Larger than mountains, resting in their ships 
That ride the seas of space. They told me that men 
Did seem to have a vague intelligence. 
Yet, knowing not that low intelligence 
And strife must co-exist; that vision vast 
Moves only out from rest; make they their choice: 
So, through the centuries long, dwell they in doubt; 
And, through the centuries long, swells up their outcry — 
Up, through the dark their violence does make — 
For light; whose narrow outlet can be but through peace. 
But, as the blue of dawn changed to that hue 
In which the later day does dress herself, 
The prospect blurred; the pressure changed; until 
These beings could no longer stop near earth; 
Therefore, unmoored their ships; and on an ohm 
Were swept through space, back to their home again. 

Elmo — Learned you no more? 

Etheria — I noted this: men did not 



9 

See that themselves are makers of themselves; 
Makers of flowers and fruits, of dearths and famines; 
And that the years in which would famines come 
Were in themselves inscribed, and years of plenty. 
That when they grasping grew and sought without, 
Where is the place of sand, flow and effects. 
Prosperity, came after dearth of growths; 
But honest deeds of nations would make birds 
Carol and their earth blossom. That they knew not 
They should be glad foi* hardships placed upon them, 
And know them wealth for their soul's treasure-house — 
Seeing, who has the heaviest put upon him 
Is one, for strength selected, to make richest 
If that same strength can hold him, when wronged, 

silent. 
Elidah — Lowest in all those things that mankind 

most prize; 
Himself, with goodwill taking all that comes, 
Not murmuring; himself acknowledging — 
(The cause being that whereof he will not speak) — 
One who has failed; one low, one with the lowest: 
By such life, from the sea forth, if they take it. 
May men learn through what brine-salt bitter thing, 
The belly given, the soul may loosed be. 
Higher than institutions, beyond schools, 
Must men go would they learn more than their most. 
Ceasing to hope for gain, to store up stores, 
Out of the depths, out of misfortune's well, 
Must know that wisdom comes: with manhood high, 
With grit, receive misfortunes, in all forms. 
As those sole lessons that can teach the soul. 



10 

S haped in no other form can wisdom reacli it — 
Only in that pass the soul's gate, the heart. 
For life in essence, fortune is no food; and wealth 
For the soul's frame supplies thus much, not more; 
Stagnation time between each act, each labor. 

AiDAEL — Bear they the drawing of the Southern Cross ? 
Note they influences of the Pleiades ? 
Sees each his likeness, blow by blow, from star dust, 
Through all his days, from model changeless, wrought out, 
That, time beneath it, still stands, with us, deathless? 
Knowing what poets have been moved to write 
Must, in a measured time, appear in heaven : 
Have they interpreters, when stars out write it, 
Beyond their sunset — sapients who may read 
"What these star pathways show, and shown, leave trace- 
less? 
Have they yet learned to speak out that star language, 

which 
Spoken to stars dark, each one after another 
Succeeding, touched, becomes a glowing light, 
A beacon burning out upon the night? 
Know they the way 
Men may awaken stars that are asleep? 

Ethkon — With zephyr thoughts, but granite preju- 
dices, 
Through strife they're still kept blind to other worlds; 
Through greed*from knowing that they are themselves. 
Their eyes are flesh, and through that flesh they look, 
Yet know they not themselves that have looked through it. 
Men seem as fishes dwelling in the ocean, 
Oblivious of all beings up above them. 

Blantha — This day I seized upon th'returning ray 



11 

Of the revolving light from sun to earth. 

I passed the point those rays opposed do cross : 

And sitting alone upon 

The foremost promontory of the sun 

Watched I the silver earth as it revolved, 

Yet learned but little. But I learned thus much : 

That earth, whereon they dwell, by their own acts 

Is built, 

Right faith being of intelligence the highest; 

This builds the frame: things come according to it. 

And only faith in all brave ones gone from them. 

As never dead, will turn to naught the mist, 

And have it gone, that's been the wall between us. 

That world, below, is built as is right faith, and grows 

According to that faith. Men's disbelief 

In us, it is, that still builds up the wall 

That hides us from them. 

Then (as a heart is curved) their acts from it 

Are prompted: That their thoughts descend from them 

Into their earth, to from it crying come — 

Therefrom, new living. The form of it proclaimed— 

Spoken by dazzling voices; glittered; outspoken, 

Down from high heaven and up. And this saw I : 

The motive power that moves the leaves apart, 

From bud of rose to bloom — 

The meditation in a woman's heart. 

And looking to see their cause, within the forests 

The lotus flowers that bloom, that, unseen, fade, 

Saw I moved from the meditntions prime 

Of those saint's hearts whereof the world knows not; 

The cobra's life move from a man's heart, long 

On murder bent; the shylock nature feeding 



12 

Into the boa-constrictor's form its force 
That gives it life to crush. The skylark's song 
Is rapture; borne from a new thought, caught 
To period put to search that did seem endless. 

Elmo— Since this is, then, a real race indeed, 
And not— what once we thought— but plants that move, 
'Twere well for us to better their condition. 
Has any other of this company 
Brought knowledge of this odd, discovered race? 
Arno— I have, for fifteen circlings of the sun, 
Dwelt opposite to him in midnight darkness; 
And not being able to go close to earth. 
Have caused life-informed force to obey my orders 
And fetch me information of these creatures. 
It told me that these beings, through the night, 
Seem in a state of death; but come to light 
Oat- wakened by the wave of harmony 
The sun plays on his rolling lyre of earth. 
I then learned that they're often much tormented 
By growths of contest, whose poor lives are measured, 
And other devilish sprites 
That, like the skates and mudfish of the ocean. 
Dwell at the bottom of the seas of air. 
Although 'twas hard to learn, have I discovered- 
Through pictures shown to me of these same mortals— 
In every one is there the central good; 
Which good will, as a rose, burst into bloom 
Beneath the glowing light that looks to find it. 
I saw, with all, that love outlasted death; 
The strength of mother's love, that's not of earth. 
This many knew not: That when, from their bodies 
Themselves would be withdrawn, in death or sleep, 



13 

Their thoughts will (in those states) for them become 

(To all whose lives those same thoughts form) 

One visible and solid habitation; one, though, unseen. 

Invisible to others having thoughts 

Less rare than are their own. Those having thoughts 

unlike : 
The kind the brutal see; but they, to them, live blind. 
Methinks twould be a pleasant thing indeed, 
To help them lift such clouds as hide their light 
And hold them blind and dead. 

Elmo — It shall be done. Now, for the present time, 
We'll have our workmen, in their shops of air, 
So to combine and forge the elements 
That the bright song of twilight shall be formed 
Ere sinks the sun to his cloud-curtained bed. 
And, to that end. 

Let them combine the light that's shot from Venus; 
The color of the ocean's wave by moonlight. 
Above the violet and below the red; 
The light reflected from the ocean's teeth 
When angrily she gnaws the edge of earth; 
The dancing atmosphere of summer evenings; 
The dizzy-moving borealis light; 
Weird shadows of the ancient gloomy forests; 
The lulling sound of dripping unseen waters — 
Above their treble or below their bass; 
Then touch all with the breath of summer air — 
More delicate than the sense of man can reach — 
When every flower is decked in glittering dew — 
Its gaudy dress worn on that grand occasion 
•When's heard the bow of promise, the storm being o'er. 
These sights and sounds our spread, our feast this night. 



ACT II. 

Scene.— A California forest high up in the mountains. A small 
stream comes winding through the woods. 

De Petzy and Blauyelt enter. 

Blauvelt — Here let us rest and make tonight our 
camp. 
And let our tired limbs and aching bones 
Be patients, for a time, to such attendants 
As nature sends in shape of cooling winds 
Which, to the patients placed beneath their care, 
Bring balmy odors from the ferns and mosses 
And many an herb, till we are healed again. 

De Petzy — I think we could not better our condition 
By going further on. Besides, the night — 

Blauvelt — Drop then your gun and rest upon this 
bank. 
How sweet the air, the gurgling of this stream ! 
There's something soothing and refreshing to me 
To find myself afar from human cares; 
Far off, beyond the sounding of an echo 
Of giant mills and cities soot-begrimmed : 
Our sole companions these dumb trees that stand 
Holding behiud their grim and solemn aspects 
The secrets of a thousand passing years 
Known to themselves alone;, the antlered deer; 
Owls whose wise looks tell of their secret knowledge; 
And other beasts, spellbound — made dumb by nature 
To hold the wondrous things that they have seen. 

De Petzy — Of ttimes my mind being in a curious mood. 



15 

When, knowing I've been never out of it, 
But all I've seen and read within myself, 
Earth seemed more like a dream than any — a fancy, 
That strides the stage of sleep. Is it not odd 
That we are held here on this piece of earth 
That floats a bubble on the seas of space? 
Such being our lot seems a disordered dream — 
A state of odd enchantment, that of earth. 
While real things are unknown all to us. 

Blauvelt — I've often thought something more worthy 

men 
Must back this race for wealth. That gives not life. 
Thinking beyond accepted thought makes that. 
For thought gets life : a launching out by faith — 
(Dead to all earthly haps) — alone draws that. 
In all, life got, takes forms. And, thus, comes thought. 
Which, new, the old drives out, bearing its forms; 
Its used; its dead — that have been. And, thus, thought — 
(New in, old out) — the heart moves: bridge from life to 

death. 
High souls, not born, wait till thought, on earth gathered. 
Attracting, draws them here to take on form — 
Thus nature, breathing, gives to us new knowledge, 
Wonders astonishing and unimaginable 
Being yet not known. 

De Petzy — There's surely pleasant contrast in these 

woods, 
For, being alone, we have no enemies; 
Being far away — off from the race of men — 
But having none to hate us, we have not 
A place for gentle thoughts to reach their mark. 



16 

Therefore, a life apart from all mankind 
Is one not natural, one with parts left out. 

Blauvelt — List to the cooing of the unseen dove ! 
I wonder if they, too, have woes of love — 
Heave mighty sighs; then with disturbed visage, 
And eyes grown mournfully large, gaze they upon 
Those whom they love, with passionate, pleading looks? 
And are they jealous, like men? 
And have they friends^ or foes, or foolish customs 
To break sweet nature's course, and leave love hopeless ? 

De Petzy — Why, sure it is, they have their share of 
woes, 
Wrought chiefly by fear; 
Living a life of false alarms wrought out; 
Mourn for their friends, and in their sweetest songs 
Cast out their griefs into the wide world's ear. 
But now I'll leave you to more lonely musings 
And wander off t'ex-plore the woods around us. 

[Exit De Petzy. Blauvelt lies down and goes to 
sleep. Then enter Elidah, Aidael, and also Wavra 
and Ellock, two spirits of the woods.] 

Wavra — He lies asleep. Upon his face I'll breathe. 
And, through my breath, infuse my nature in him, 
Creating such fancies and such odd conclusions — 
Harmless, as in him is there naught of hate — 
As never yet were lodged in mortal mind. 
Then shall he sweep the universe with thought 
And stand amazed indeed to see the things 
Caught in his net of reason. 

Aidael — But, is not this one of earth's bards, earth's 
prophets ? 



17 

One of those rare ones, by us best beloved, 

Who may not lie to hold place or position, 

But, doing those things that place earth beneath them, 

Upon the rungs of such a ladder made, 

Can, to us, mount in vision? 

Elidah— One of the ones who speak in metaphors. 
Which, of men's thought, being nearest to the language 
Wrought by our state, enables us to give back 
To them their wisdom— 

With courage that is not the drum'd-drugged sort. 
These speak the truth, when that, if that they tell. 
Means loss of place, of bread, of benefice. 
Soldiers may take a chance to die, and fear not. 
If clacquers clack, or drums go loud enough. 
What is called death. Here's of another class; 
He's of a band— of those strange sturdy ones 
That fear not 

The poverty before which governors quake; 

At which (while they blanch and their stomachs 
weaken) — 

Orders obeying rather than the truth- 
Generals and admirals, then denying it. 

Or, in place of it, stating what is not, 

Have hidden over and concealed their guilt. 

While toward such men bend we men's high plaudits, 

Their wealth and honors, 

Against our dear ones have we turned men's jeers. 

And had them buffet them and hand them wounds. 

Yet, while at their amazement we have laughed— 

Seeing what rotten fruit the others got, 

While these had life-our laughter was for love's sake. 



18 

And soldiers, also, who were more than such, 
And admirals have been, and such again will be, 
Who will obey the truth and bear what comes 
When they those disobey by whom they're ordered 
To do against it, and serve 'gainst the right. 

Wavra — Shall we then plague him ? 

Ellock — Is't not against Etheria's commands, 
Who, for the part she takes in that great work 
That is now brewing in the higher heavens 
To help the world — would bring these two together? 

Wavea — Not if such thoughts are placed within his 
brain 
T'attract him out of earth. 
I'll let him, in his dreams, tread upward, 
And, being the hero of his deeds of sleep. 
Go onward; upward through those many realms — 
Tliat have high words of which they are upbuilt, 
To make them to the low invisible — 
Where waking mortals could not be and live. 
I'll show a thousand varied scenes in hell 
Where, there, the laughter of a woman's eyes 
Would end his peace forever; 
I'll show the green and monstrous angular sprites 
That, in the chilly southern seas of ice 
Where sbines the southern cross, control the waters 
And make the choppy seas dash icy waves 
Against the mighty domes and towers of ice 
Full many feet in air; 

That drag the howling winds from point to point. 
Shrieking as if in pain; 
That lead the deadly winds against the ships. 



19 

Icing the rigging, freezing the sailors' thumbs, 
And then — white fogs unfold upon the waters. 
And all the while, so various are the sounds — 
The loud reports, the rattling of floating ice — 
That hell itself seems there to have an echo. 
I'll show those fourteen stars west of the cross, 
Where dwell the dreaded mutineers from Venus. 
We'll show where was the pyramid first made. 
We'll show the cloud-bound caves of distant realms 
Where roam forever spirits of wild beasts. 
And then we'll show the wild north-central heaven 
Where come the poisonous winds from every point 
Named on the compass ; mingling their poisonous 
breaths 



[Here is left out a portioii of tbe matter referred to in the 
Prefatory Note, in order that the institutions of learning of the 
world may determine the question as to whether or not it is prob- 
able, from so much of the woi-k as has beea placed before' them, 
that the portion not placed l^efore them is of such a character 
that it should be permitted — at the same time that they erect and 
idolize and endow buildings of stone and wood — as they stand and 
look on, to perish; not needed to be put into expression; not 
needed to be taught in their colleges and schools. 

As it is into their hands that the people have placed on trust 
large endowments to be used for the eacouragement of, and as a 
means of giving recognition to, the work of those who give their 
own, in order that they may work in the art kingdom ; and as 
teachers and rulers over the schools have, many of them, given to 
one another the title of Master in these matters that belong to the 
kingdom of art, it will be for them, sitting in the character of 
Masters in the art kingdom, to determine whether or not it is for 
them to pass upon the question here presented— which is of it. 

Much better would it be if these charity funds, now used to 
aid youth, are not well used, that they should be used to improve 
and add to the comforts of those noble, charitable homes, alms- 
houses, that, because the heart is ever wiser than doctrines taught 
by what may be called the phariseeism of science, have been 
established for those less able to help and care for themselves than 
the young, those who have expended more of their energies in the 
work of the world than the young — the old.] 



ACT ni. 

/Scene.— Same as Scene 1, Act I. 

Elmo— Since it has been resolved by us to each 
Help on some other being of this race, 
Let such as have observed them give the news. 
What has been seen? 

Elidah— Saw I an island in the ocean's water, 
Where sits one crying: " Peace on earth; goodwill!" 
Whose garment's fringe is soldiers, scarlet clad. 
Their State keeps her. She feeds from those they've 

slain. 
ETHRON-Beloved spirit, it being against our natures 
To come in closer contact with the earth, 
Therefore, I've sought out beings that have power 
To walk upon the surface of that earth. 
Out of their multitudes, with various natures. 
Chose I the laughing sprites called from the woods 
To serve my ends. 

Elmo— How learned you from them? 

ETHRON-These things saw I through them: 
Thatkind thoughts, thoughtsofothers,shallexpandthem. 

Giving new strength and power of life to both. 

Ill thoughts take with them from the soul that throws 

them — 
Or, peoples thinking less of other peoples, 
By that made measure- 
Part of its store of strength: 
That he, as well, who sees another suffer. 
Having stored up what could be his relief, 



22 

And does not use it, thus deprives himself 
In exact measure by those his possessions 
That he used not. 

Elmo — Looking on such, we see — 
If they change not, how blind, how wretched they ! 
How poor these are; how naked — unaware. 
Until that hour when they shall start, awake — 
Seeing themselves — and shrieking flee such goods, 
And gauds; those things that, with a turtle's gripe, 
Till then, they'd clung to. 

Ethron— The air below is filled with finest dust — 
From this they modeled forth a beauteous maiden : 
Thereafter, casting sunlight on this form 
Seemed it to live; and, by this form of hers, 
Knew I, how outward nature, acting on it, 
Would fill her inward mind; and saw that she 
Was one it would repay us well to serve. 

Elmo- -How would you, could you, serve her ? 

Ethron — Why, I have seen one cruel thing on earth: 
That natures that are fitted each to each 
Oft lead a life that's all unsatisfied, 
Because they feel, and yet they do not know, 
The other lives for them; yet die, and never meet. 
Therefore, I've brought the one that's fitted for her 
And they have met, and in a moment felt 
What they have known since Neptune touched, last, earth. 
To consummate my plans 
I've had her flee her home within the woods; 
And, to prevent her guardian following her, 
Have given to its obedient sprites the power 
To play such tricks as pleased them most upon them. 



23 

They lead them now up steeps ; through briars and thorns, 

And by the many mansions of that route; 

O'er angular rocks that mincing feet will wound 

And jar out lies, like toads, from mouths that hold them; 

Through swamps and wild grapevines; 

Make each one think the other Sylvia, 

And set each beating each. 

Now will I lead her on through trouble and woe 

To drag her dead world from her. 

Elmo — Has she no earthly friend to help her? 

Ethron — My ministering spirit showed an aged man 
Thinking the daughter that he one time had 
Was dead in infancy. They told me then, 
That this was Sylvia's father. 
Studied I then his brain, and of the spirits 
(Which men call thoughts) attracted to his soul 
Saw I, 'mongst others, these, his last conclusions, 
Which showed me odd things of this race of men. 
Men knew but little, and seemed Dot to, this: 
That when the sun, new-born, goes on its course, 
Its number altering with each day it makes. 
Meets it and greets it in all germs their number; 
Then leap they at its music, known to life. 
'Tis what man's done that makes him. What he says, 
Though books of eloquence piled mountains high 
Contain it — (please them as it may) — for it. 
All ears it enters must prove barren wombs, 
'Less what he lauds first a man himself has done. 
That, when man seems held fast, and bound by fate, 
Yet, even then, relief will surely come, 
And by some path that will seem plain enough — 



24 

When has the fullness of his task been worked— 
But which he had completely overlooked 
And lost all memory of. 

Elmo — This is a good commencement for an end 
To round out royally. What other spirit 
Will further speak of what has been discovered? 
Here comes one, having bright, mischievous eyes 
That an odd humor might find, ev'n in death. 

VONBA— I've seen their life is just an odd conceit 
Wrought from more odd conceits- 
Seeing the future is but night to them. 

Queer that, worshiping tenderness to all. 
Peace grows their battlecry : Thieving, with some, 
Their spreading; with some, their greed, their god. 
Those that start war, and, through war, seek their will, 
Yet talk of heaven to be; 
Not knowing that a mind, to grow to that, 
Must, by desire, fast to no part be drawn; 
Must rise up, over all this realm of strife; 
Whose hands must hold no more, nor cling to earth; 
To go in there must leave itself without; 
His mantle of earth released— let go to earth. 

Elidah— Whose eye that so long doubled was, and 
kept obscured, 
Be merged, be single made, and knowing— and known 
To that straight column, straight as a straight rod 
That is the light. 

Upholding they the things of earth as high. 
Fall they down with them. Saw I, this: 
Who slowly kills, by words or cruel looks, 
Or thoughts unfair, or thoughts by hate projected, . 



25 

Is as much murderer as is the one 
Who does so with a bludgeon. 

AiDAEL — Whose thoughts are drawn — forced down to 
central earth. 
But there are thoughts, of which are thoughts of art, 
Keversing gravity, and they hold life. 

VoNRA — This, too, saw I of them: 
They're never all good; not one entirely bad. 
The worst of any will, at times, be saints; 
The best, their opposite. 

Elmo — What knowledge have they 
Of all the radiant hosts of worlds about them ? 

VoNRA — They scarce conceive that all the things of 
earth 
Are things in miniature of worlds full-grown. 
That, as their nations think and act like men, 
At times being sane, at times being mad as they, 
So is their race a unit for vast worlds. 
That, as their seas have puny storms upon them. 
So are there other storms that sweep through space. 
Creating vast currents, whirlpools and tides; 
Setting world's dancing on their rushing billows 
Like corks upon the ocean; 
Or, carrying systems o'er that mighty deep 
By billows hurrying, rushing, raging onward. 
That move upon the beacon lights of night 
And surge beyond. They dream not of those fleets 
That, sails all set, move o'er a darker ocean. 
Into those systems where are lights grown dark — 
Not earths, not suns. 
They laugh at forces fast in fading halls — 



26 

The universe fast in the soul of man; 

At beings crouching on the star-storm clouds; 

At cities dead that we see living yet. 

Looking within, they seem to see these things; 

But, looking without, upon the world again, 

They call them fancies, and they vanish from them. 

Ah, if they only knew the law of change — 

And knew the half we know — 

How would it shake their minds and make them mad. 

Ethron — The only cause of all is ignorance, 
From which springs prejudice and every folly. 
This shadow of death is now most heavy on them. 
But, with our aid, the world begins to move. 
This century has promised mighty times 
That will outleap the tedious course of nature, 
Leaving behind their savagery days of war; 
Of right by blood to be the manger dog; 
Rights called divine, and many another right 
That has been always wrong. 
The time will come when to this human race 
The only king will be the king of hearts — 
When each man will refuse such goods on earth 
As all men may not have. 
For men will learrf that day that true it is, 
That only one thing is ail-where assured — 
Heart of a gentle man. 

YoNRA — There's this as their excuse: 
How much their life from infancy to age 
Is the world's dead world working outward through them. 

Elmo — Know they the poorest have as much to give 
as any? 



27 

That each time ever a truth is told : that is an act 

To all men a donation more than gifts? 

With each truth told 

(Though far off as the west is from the east) 

Some fetter dropping off; 

Some one, till then enslaved, by that made free? 

VoNRA — Nor know they beings wiser than themselves, 
Sometimes stir up their anger, each 'gainst each. 
To wear away defects that are within them, 
Playing those forces downward and upon them. 
Whereof they're unaware. 

ELmo — Can they know this: 
Man's lack of heart makes earth yield lack of bread? 
That: 

Whenever nations have bound on their brows 
Phylacteries; themselves then, better holding 
Than others; then (those others robbed). 
Speaks earth in famines? 
Know they the heavenly character of music 
That tells the way by which buds turn to flowers, 
Inscribed in which are secrets of all worlds 
Throughout the heavens; which our beings splendid 
As their law read? 

Ethron — 'Tis sweet to them; but that it is a key 
Made to unbolt their gateway into heaven 
Know not they all of them; 

Elmo— Odd, odd indeed ! Comes now our time to move 
Upon our westward journey with the sun. 



ACT IV. 

Scene. — Same as Scene of Act II. 

De Petzy — Cheer up. This is no time for gloominess. 
Go join the dance. 

Blauvelt — I'm worn and weary, and am sick at heart. 
Seeing I've searched to find her that I love 
These many days, but have not heard of her. 
But, over the world I'll search, 
Following th'ecliptic of our lives apart, 
Moving the table round, 'till I win all : 
From icy lands within the bitter North, 
Beneath cold skies that are as blue as steel, 
To scorching wastes where burn the sands as fire, 
And hot winds dry the tongue and parch the throat — 
Aye, till this frame falls helpless at the last; 
Rib from my form that in my sleep was taken, 
I will still seek her; 

On, through those ages we must stay apart; 
On still, o'er that curvature, till we meet. 
With that commencement of our bliss unutterable 
To know that death is dead. 

De Petzy — You say you've found her father, too, 
Who now assists in searching for her? 

Jesse — Go join the dance. I take't no compliment 
You will not join. Why, what a long-drawn visage! 
Cheer up. 'Twill all end well. 
The one who makes your face so melancholy 
Will be kind yet. 

Blauvelt — No act unkind 'has given to me my sadness. 



29 

De Petzy — Where was it that you last lost track of her? 

Blauvelt — Why, first she wandered through those 
gloomy woods, 
That make these woods; 
Then crossed the fields and over dusty roads, 
Till, reaching that city, entered she into it. 
The sounds of city life to her were strange, 
And many a time they filled her mind with dread 
(So have I learned from those who did observe her). 
Day in, day out, she wandered through the streets. 
But found not what she sought. 
At last, 'tis said, she wearied of this life, 
And pined for streams, the wild flowers and these woods. 
And often was she now seen by the ocean. 
Listening to hear each message that the waves 
Had brought from distant ports; or, in the fields. 
That nearest stood beside the city's edge. 
Would she pluck flowers to gaze upon their faces 
And get what women get (though knowing not what) 
Who love them; 

And from them read, as from a mirrored image, 
Of distant streams, and mountains blue, and woods. 
At last, those who'd observed lost sight of her — 
From that point learned I nothing. [Enter Sylvia.] 
But who comes here ? Now, if my eyes deceive me — 

Sylvia — At last! 

Blauvelt — Tell me — where have you been ? 
What land has been so lighted by your eyes. 
No sun was needed? 

Sylvia — Three weary days, and nights as weary, too, 
I've seen the stars creating light by night. 



30 

The mightier sun relieving them by day, 
But found you not. Then grew most weary I. 
At last rose up a light forth from the ground 
Which moyed before, and, following after it, 
Came I, till here. 

Blauvelt — Was it an angel that led Sylvia? 
Seeing so soft and gentle are her thoughts 
That in them might one come? 
And now the day of parting is o'erpast, 
And part will we no more. 

Sylvia— Not on this earth, and when death comes to one 
Then will we lie each in the others arms, 
And, as one dies, the other die as well. 
And both, thus joined, pass to the realms of sleep. 



SUPPLEMENT 

[Which was at the end of previous editions! 
[Matter is here set forth for the aid of some of the British reviewers, who 
have believed that they have reviewed the book to which this Supple- 
ment is appended, but who have not-although the looks from their 
eyes have passed over its pages-even seen all that is within the work.] 

The qnestion as to whether the author of the foregoing book, copies 
cf which have been placed in the hands of many readers in Europe, Asia, 
Canada, the United States of America and Islands of the Pacific, is 
a "Spiritualist, Christian Scientist, Theosophist or what?" has called 
from him letters of which that given below is one. It is printed here in 
order that it may serve as an answer to some questions that the book itself 
will continue-as long as brute force continues in any part of the world 
to be used by one set of men as a means of rule over another— to arouse; 
and for yet an additional reason— namely, that it may serve to convey 
to the world some knowledge upon the subject of Art that such reviews 
by British reviewers, of the earlier issues of the work as have reached 
him, have not appeared to the author to possess. A knowledge of Art 
in its higher manifestation (if judgment is based solely upon their 
printed utterances) is a matter in regard to which these particular 
reviewers have appeared to be not conscious. Seeming, as they have 
done in a great variety of ways, to display lack of knowledge of what 
Art may be, it appears to be but proper to place here before the world 
Bome knowledge, not in their reviews, of that which Art in time may 

come to be. .,,!,« 

And for that reason the following letter is here placed before men, 
and such readers as can come to be aware of it: 

Dear Madam: I will try to answer your questions. It is my belief 
that with others who do what we do we are one; and also that, to those 
who do the things that we have done, our thoughts must in time go. But 
the process by which we may come to dwell each in the other may be 
Blow or it may be sudden. There is, as I understand it, but one way 
by which I can come to dwell in another, and he in me; and that one 
way is by doing what he does or what he has done. If I am to become 
a member of an organization or society having rules of admission, I am 
enabled to become one by first doing the things that others to become 
' such have done. What the society does the person on the outside, who 



2 

has not done those things that make a man a member, does not know. 
So, if I wish to find and stand at the point in the universe from whioh 
will gush forth the same stream of thought which in times past hai 
poured into the soul of prophet and poet, builder or artist, I must first 
walk along the way that was found by him, and then stand where he 
stood. Should I wish to think as does the beggar on the street who, 
with shame, begs, in order that another may be helped, or as does a 
bishop, or university president, without shame, for the same end (blam« 
being to neither of them, but only to those who, upon being asked, do 
not, in fact as well as in form, divide with those whose need is found 
to be greater than is their own, their bread), I must do what they hav« 
done. If I wish to think as does a captain of industry, I must live for 
that one purpose, and must make my eyes blin^ and my ears deaf t« 
any effect upon others of my deeds which would delay or prevent the 
accomplishment of my one purpose. That which, among all of my 
works must be my purpose placed most high, must be to become an 
industry captain. But, should my choice be given to them, and those 
things be done by me, because in them is my whole heart, my mind and 
my strength, those other thoughts and powers will never be able to 
enter, or so far penetrate into me that I will be able even seriously to 
believe in their existence, that come to the prophet, who has another 
purpose, desired by the whole of his heart, and with all of his strength, 
or to the musician or poet, who, throughout life, has persistently refused 
to permit himself to become filled, to the exclusion of that which he is 
destined to obtain, with those things by which a merchant obtains hi« 
reward — the reward that comes from a willingness not to forego success, 
but yet to press on forward to obtain it after he has become aware that, 
by each additional eflfort made by him to obtain it, the struggle of others 
of his fellows is made yet more onerous. 

The poet, on the other hand, and prophet, seek above all things, to 
get beyond the region in nature where the transfers and exchanges 
taking place constitute the parent or starting-point of those evanescent 
processes in the world called commerce, that, seemingly stable, are 
ephemeral, and among the things first forgotten. With an intuitive 
knowledge or instinct towards the things that are lasting, the poet and 
prophet seeks to get, notwithstanding his resisting outer nature, beyond 
this realm of the bubbles that burst into the place where the dreams 
are, which are the only things that have a permanent and an everlasting 
foundation. But if ever his dreams becom strong enough to lift him 
up out of the commercial willingness to prosper at the cost of another 
man's distress, the things that have, at such cost, come to him, must fall 



3 

away from him. For he has been lifted by his dreams from a place in 
which things of one kind could be to another in which they cannot. 
And he will from choice now leave, as to him of little worth, the things 
or methods that create the success of the industry captain — methods 
that make fame and achieve for the politician or ecclesiastic the chief 
places or seats. He will leave them to obtain those things that to the 
amazed captains of industry — and rightly from their view-point — con- 
stitute a mere matter of midsummer madness. 

In other words, as these matters seem to be seen by me, the parent 
of a thought — if the thought is one that is to rise up, and constitute the 
nucleus of a star, which will thereafter grow into form and take its place 
in the heavens— must be first that which is back of all things that are 
destined to live— an impulse; the impulse will then be followed by an 
act, and the act by its thought. And to be with and of others, they and 
we must have acted from the same impulse, intuition or spirit. Our 
deeds will then be of the same class, kind or kingdom. 

Thoughts, like men, have their measured, fixed and appointed 
periods of life. And, as I have looked at thoughts, those that have been 
of longest life have had for their parents acts that looked as if they were 
destined to bring to those who were, for the time being, controlled by 
them, the opposite of that for which the world of traffic seeks — the least. 
The deeds thus prompted were the opposite of those of timidity; were 
deeds that, as they have sought but little or nothing for self, have been 
deeds that have been most courageous. 

But, should the steps taken by poet or prophet be taken even for such 
pure gain as gain of knowledge, when the gain sought is to be only for 
self it will be nothing, for it will still belong to the world of commerce, 
and be mere traffic. For, as long as gain remains the object, no more can 
be obtained through the spirit of that effort than can be obtained 
through the spirit of any other traffic, and its fruits will be the same — 
be only that which comes from traffic: and it will be as well to work as 
a politician — for the fruit of traffic can rise no higher than a material 
thing, and will be, in that case, an office; or, as a soldier fighting for 
territory, who goes forth to take from another people their land, and, as 
compensation, gets applause, or a certain and unfailing income, which 
the business career of a private citizen would not so certainly assure 
him, by which he is led to feel certain of the bread that will keep in him 
the kind of life that he is ready to take away from others in order that 
he himself may not lose it. 

Upon the other hand, the reward of one who would become a Master 
of Arts is that which comes from desiring rather to abandon and walk 



away from the certainty of bread or applause than ever to acquire it at 

the cost of another man's welfare. But, nevertheless, a man should do 

no thing so long as he does not, above all other things, prefer it — and 

that is, love it. When the time comes for him to take the steps (after 

emptying himself of the lower things that are traffic), through which 

there will be caused to flow in to him other things, he will, through that 

which alone can prompt such acts — through love of them— perform 

them. And what others do will be then to him nothing. For he will 

then see that no man should ever take such a step as the poet, prophet 

or artist will have taken from any other cause at all but one — from love 

of it. If there still remain to him other things that he prefers to do it is 

best that they should be the things still done by him. But, of these 

matters that the high artists have done it is hard to speak clearly and 

plainly, and it has always been considered easier to make them plain 

rather by reference and by metaphor. For, so long as we lead lives that 

must in many respects differ, and until the time comes when we will live 

each in the other and lead one life, there will be things that we will 

not be able to speak plainly and face to face each to the other, and long 

letters will say but little. 

* * * 

That beings in this world can become surrounded by and aware of, 
and served by others who have gone out of their garments of flesh, is 
my own belief, or dream. For our beliefs are only and no more thaa 
mere dreams. And so I speak of that which I know as a dream, and for 
two reasons: First, because its dreams have been always the most real 
of all the things of earth; and this is for the reason that of all the subjects 
of merchandise, and properties that are owned by merchants, who call 
themselves the practical ones of the earth, have had their birth origin- 
ally, and their start, out of dreams, exactly as, through the dreams of 
earth's dreamers and poets, will the merchandise accumulated by the 
methods which earth's merchants now follow, for which such merchants 
will then mourn, be caused to pass, as does a vapor before the sunlight 
of morning, or as falls away the grain before the sweep of the sickle. I 
speak of the presence of those noble ones about us who, when clothed 
in the fle.sh, would not gain aught at the cost of a wound, or of loss to 
another, as a dream, because I have stood in that attitude in which, 
when he is possessed of naught but dreams, one can look and can see 
what dreams are in men, and I have seen that such dreams as are theirs, 
and such dreams as are the dreams of those of this world who do not 
deem their own opinions to be wiser than is the wisdom of non-resist- 
ance, to be dreams that are not to be outlasted by time. 



And for these reasons I would express such ideas as it is attempted 
here to set forth in the language of the most stable of all the things that 
are— namely, by calling them dreams; and by saying that with me, it is 
a dream that, when aware of his own resplendent intellectual endow- 
ments, and knowing that by using them as did the rulers of her civili- 
zation of an hour, he could have placed himself at the head of her 
ecclesiastical system, or have stood upon the pinnacle of her commerce, 
chief among the chief captains of the industry of Judea, Jesus of Naza- 
reth preferred instead to turn away from the methods of those who, in 
her esteem were held to be highest, to stand at the place of and feel 
with them from the view-point of those who were held by her to be but 
degeuerates and outcasts there did gather all at once about him, and 
become able to serve and minister to him, all of those daring ones of the 
world of whom in times past the world had not been worthy. And that 
is a dream. 

And it is my dream (being myself one of those who, in this world 
where strife is the cause of illusions, is a practical man) that, upon this 
step being so determined upon by him that it was to come to be taken, 
there did come to him, and for months thereafter remain with him, as 
the outcome of the operation of one of nature's laws — where strife is not — 
such power over the air as made the winds in their causes subject to his 
will until they could be hushed by it, whereupon, the winds ceasing, the 
waters on the neighboring lake would be caused to subside. Such a 
will, under the laws of nature, was the kind of will that could be put 
into him by thought such as was his thought; but the power of that 
thought could come forth only out of knowledge that could believe no 
fellow man himself to be degenerate— knowledge that could know of no 
one fittest to survive. 

This, too, I dream: That when Siddartha (Gautama Buddha), the 
compassionate, went away from his palace forever to learn, by living it, 
what was the view-point of India's outcasts, there did, indeed, as has 
been said, gather about him when he was under tbe Bo tree all of those 
who, by that act, were made to be dwellers in and to become one with him 
through having done deeds that were of the same spirit of compassion 
that had prompted his act. 

And I dream a dream (that comes from what taught him) that when 
Socrates, the jester for truth (one of that mighty line that fortunately 
has, and will yet have, descendants), was, with the utmost coolness, ready 
to drink the hemlock for having spoken that which the timid, and 
nations whose hands are war-stained, strive ever to hide and conceal, 
and, amid his disturbed friends, spoke undisturbed of his death, there 



6 

was in his own words, for Lim, more than he'allowed them to know; and 
that he was, during his discourse, made calm by the near presence of 
those great ones, at the moment ministering to him, into contact with 
whom he had been brought through a deed done such as they before 
him had performed; and that his genius— his own spirit— his father in 
heaven — the monitor of whom he had so many times spoken — was, in 
those high moments, so near to him that the whole earth and heaven 
had already begun to take on for him a new shape and beauty and 
things a rare and new meaning, such as were cause of a deep and a new 
wonder to him. These things I dream, and, seeing them one and 
eternal with that of which they themselves are an embodied and perma- 
nent part, I cannot escape from believing. With the hope that, on 
paper, they may have served the purpose that, in placing them here, I 
have hoped for, I am, 

Very respectfully, 

AdAIB WeIjCKER. 



SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION AND FOUNDATION OF THE 
IDEA OF HELL. 

Since the article given below— (in many publications since pub- 
lished) — ^was written, volcanic eruptions, such as were never before 
known, have occurred; and, if those obsessed by ideas of past ages, and 
given, as playthings conforming to those ideas of obsession, warships, 
are still retained, or selected by nations to act as their rulers, and such, 
their rulers, with these, their playthings, shoot more children or women 
to death, events still more startling will happen. The following article, 
relating to volcanic eruptions that were to come, is the one to which the 
volcanic eruptions that have since occurred have related: 

In the opening article of "McClure's Magazine " for March, 1902 
the statement is made that Professor Loeb of Chicago conceives life and 
electricity to be the same; and also believes it to be the fact that, as the 
result of the magnificent work done by him and those assisting him, life 
may come to be prolonged. With the last statement I agree; but, as 
will appear from the pages of a manuscript book entitled, "His Verses 
(with That in Them Which Is), for Those Kindest Hearted," copies of 
which were presented by me several years ago to libraries of Royal 
Societies in Ireland, Scotland and England, to the chief universities of 
those countries, to the chief universities of Australia and Canada, and 



to the chief universities of the United States of America, with the first 
statement I do not, in all respects, agree. In one of the poems con 
tained in the manuscript book, the title of the poem being, " How to 
Overcome the Last Enemy," are these words : " For electrified is action 
and (transmuted) will, through deeds, come a force to end all dying," 
etc., etc. 

Action is, indeed, as has been seen by Professor Loeb, the result of 
the operation of electricity; for, as in the poem stated, "electrified is 
action;" but, back of electricity is something more subtle, which deter- 
mines its character— as to whether the manifested electricity will be 
negative or positive. This subtle something is thought. But thought 
is of two kinds. One kind is the kind in nature that is back of the 
impulse that causes the world to most highly honor and pay those 
willing, for such rewards, to take the lives of their fellows; the other is 
back of the impulse that will cause men rather to forego reward than 
accept it as the return coming for destruction to limb or life of the least 
of their fellows. It is the form of thought that prompts the highest 
known form of human courage, whose ultimate aim ever is not destruc- 
tion, but creation; whose offspring was the discovery of the X-ray, and 
such work as has been done— for which the world has not capacity suffi- 
cient to reward him— by Professor Loeb. 

Professor Loeb justly complains that, in America, rewards go, not to 
those engaged in such work as his, but rather to those who profit from 
politics. This is a discouraging fact. Still, to know this may give him 
heart to persist in his work: that outside of the walls of American uni- 
versities are artists, writers and discoverers working— and who have 
for long years worked— for whom such institutions have done, and do, 
nothing. 

But back of the gigantic natural force, whose initial or starting point 
is within the brain of man, is more than is above stated. The great 
storage battery for electricity in one of its forms of expression— that 
whose starting point is in imperialistic or despotic thought- is the cen- 
tral earth. And it was therefore not for nothing that the Seers of old 
prophesied for peoples seeking, above all other things, prosperity, a fate 
such as came upon Gomorrah and Sodom. For, back of the vague 
perception which, during the long ages, has been in the minds of men 
waiting to be worked out, that this earth can, because of their acts and 
thoughts, come to be destroyed by fire, there has been always, although 
it has not been put into formulated expression, a law and a scientific 
foundation. Injustice and its offspring coercion, or that action upon tlfe 
part of any people through which it takes a portion of the earth's sur- 



03 



8 

face away rom any other people by violence, ever creates and stores up 
within the earth an electrical force that, going to and fro within it, is* 
step by step, performing the work that can some day cause the earth's 
surface to sink and collapse and molten lava and fire from within to come 
through the crevasses then formed, and spread out over its surface. 

Thought is a gigantic natural power and its operation not yet full 
comprehended; but the time will come when it will be a fact apparent 
that all of those who, in pulpit or press, uphold the application of tort- 
ure to their fellow-men, such as was not practiced by the armies of 
pagan times, are, whether they are aware of the fact or not, but hasten- 
ing, by their thought and intent, the time of the arrival of such a final 
result. 

The prophets and poets of ancient times, although in their outer 
natures they had not yet come to see that, back of their prophecies, 
there rested a principle of science, yet had within them an intuitive 
consciousness of the fact that injustice, done by any man upon earth, 
brings about simultaneous changes within it; and they were wiser than 
they knew when their intuitions told them that hypocricy, brutality and 
greed on earth might bring about destruction from within it if ever the 
time should come when such an abomination of desolation should make 
its appearance upon the earth as towns and villages having the torch 
set to them in liberty's name, and in that name gun and sword used to 
make of any place inhabited by man a wilderness. 

Unless work of that character ceases to be done, lightning, or the elec- 
tricity that the minds of men can create, will, by all men, be seen to fall 
from heaven. And. although from the time of the world's foundation, it 
has been in process of generation through each act of coercion and 
oppression, each act for expansion by conquest, although they have not 
yet all of them seen it, each man may, before the present generation 
shall have, all of it, departed, come, in many places, to see it. 

Adaib Welcker. 



